The ability to communicate and socialize is the cornerstone of
humanity. And talking to one another is, in fact, what makes us human.
Our need to socialize has led us to extraordinary developments in
telecommunication, like the
Internet, the telephone or
the pen and paper before that. Now, in this new age, we all revolve
around socializing, we use social networks, like Facebook or Google+, we
send text messages on our phones, we call our friends and so on.
Free Calling: Basic Need for Budget Wary Persons
But
nowadays, because we extend our network of friends well across borders,
to distant countries, the ability to communicate is fairly limited. To
call friends from other countries can be quite expensive. Although
roaming prices have decreased lately, it’s still rather expensive. And
other ways to keep in touch are necessary. But for those of you who have
friends all over the world who you’d like to keep in touch with, these
are solutions that can help you call them and avoid huge
roaming rates.
How cheap? Well, some services even let you talk for 10 minutes on
$1, but for the purpose of this tutorial, that is also too expensive.
I’ll try to give you some tools that you can use to
call anywhere in the world for free. Yes, you’ve read correctly: for free! What do you need to have in order to
call for free? Not much, just a few things that you already have in your house:
- an Internet connection
- a computer, tablet or a smartphone
- someone to call (I imagine this is the hardest part)
5 Useful Solutions for Free Calling
If
you have all of the above ingredients, it’s time to start calling. The
only catch is that the other person needs to have these ingredients as
well. There a few software programs and smartphone apps that allow you
to
call free of charge anywhere in the world using
VoIP
(Voice over internet Protocol). This communication protocol uses the
Internet to make calls rather than telephone lines. Although the
internet bandwidth it requires is a bit higher than normal (almost 2
Mbps), but the result is awesome. Great quality sound both ways and in
some cases, even for video calls you get exceptional quality, although,
for video calls you need more bandwidth.
The best known program for making VoIP calls is without a doubt,
Skype.
It allows users to make international calls to other Skype members for
free. Also, it has the option for video calls and it can support
conference of multiple members (paid). The quality of the call depends,
of course, on your Internet connection, but alas, it provides excellent
quality and all the options you need: IM, video and audio calls and
file transfer. The simple interface of Skype is one of its best features.
There
are no multiple windows and confusing options to work with. Also, Skype
is available for both Android and iOS users, and the same principles
apply:
free calls
to other Skype members, video calls and IM. Also, I prefer the video
call option on Skype Mobile over the PC one because it can use the
phone’s camera and it gives excellent quality to the image and sound.
Keep in mind, if you use Skype on a mobile device, try using it over
Wi-Fi because it can take a toll on your data and also it gives you
better speed. Skype allows you to call phones as well, but it will
require you to purchase credit. Even this method, although not free,
is cheaper than a direct telephone call.
Google offers an entire battalion of web services, and one of those services is a
free calling service
that anyone can use to call all over the world for free. The app is
ready installed on Android devices and it can be downloaded for
computers to use. Probably the simplest of all IM programs, with a
minimalist interface, Google Talk lets you call or send IMs in just a
few seconds. Also available for Apple users, Google Talk can unite any
friends no matter the distance. I particular like it for its ease of use
and great performance, although, as with Skype, if you are using it on a
mobile device, look for a Wi-Fi hotspot before calling anyone, or stick
with IMs if you are running low on data.
Yahoo!
is Google’s biggest enemy on the web. Offering a variety of web based
services and quality products, one of which is Yahoo! Messenger. Apart
from its primary role as an IM service, Y! Messenger can offer users
free calls to other friends
also using Y! Messenger. I use Y!M for over 7 years now and I’m very
happy with it. It provides lots of options and features I like and it
works pretty good on low speed Internet connections. Although not as
clean and minimalist as Skype or Google Talk, it does the job pretty
good. Also, Y!M is available for mobile devices and it offers all of the
features the computer version does. Just pay attention to the data it
consumes on calls.
Fring is a Mobile service that allows you
make video and audio calls completely free.
Although its main purpose is for video calls and group calls, it also
accommodates audio calls very well. The app is available for Android,
iOS and Symbian so you can talk to your friends despite the different
manufacturers of the smartphones. The downside is that Fring does not
support computer or Blackberry devices at this moment, but we might see
this setback eliminated in the future.
Viber
is an app that unites everyone. Being available for Android, iOS,
Blackberry and Windows Mobile, it makes it easy for anyone to connect to
friends all over the world, completely free! Using VoIP services, Viber
allows you to call anyone in the Viber network for free. The app is
very simple and does not have complicated options. It gets the job done
in a matter of seconds. Also, it provides
excellent sound quality, but it does use quite a bit of bandwidth, so stay close to your Wi-Fi hotspot when making a call.
Using
these tools will make it very easy for anyone to keep in touch with
their friends abroad, and because they use VoIP, they are completely
free! Give them a try and see how much fun you can have with your
friends, spending hours and hours on the phone.
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